Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 14, 2018; 24(26): 2806-2817
Published online Jul 14, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i26.2806
Current clinical management of gastrointestinal stromal tumor
Kazuya Akahoshi, Masafumi Oya, Tadashi Koga, Yuki Shiratsuchi
Kazuya Akahoshi, Yuki Shiratsuchi, Department of Gastroenterology, Aso Iizuka Hospital, Iizuka 820-8505, Japan
Masafumi Oya, Department of Pathology, Aso Iizuka Hospital, Iizuka 820-8505, Japan
Tadashi Koga, Department of Surgery, Aso Iizuka Hospital, Iizuka 820-8505, Japan
Author contributions: Akahoshi K wrote the paper; and Oya M, Koga T and Shiratsuchi Y revised the manuscript for final submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Kazuya Akahoshi, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Aso Iizuka Hospital, 3-83 Yoshio Town, Iizuka 820-8505, Japan. kakahoshi2@aol.com
Telephone: +81-948-223800 Fax: +81-948-298747
Received: March 28, 2018
Peer-review started: March 28, 2018
First decision: May 9, 2018
Revised: June 3, 2018
Accepted: June 22, 2018
Article in press: June 22, 2018
Published online: July 14, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: Potentially malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumors are the most common subepithelial lesions (SELs) of the gastrointestinal tract. SELs include a broader range of differential diagnoses from benign to malignant lesions. The possibility of having a malignant lesion may cause anxiety and discomfort in patients and gastroenterologists. Early and accurate diagnosis of SELs using endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and/or EUS-guided fine needle aspiration is vital to guide selection of early appropriate management.